Alaskan_Son

Nice work Chop, you're getting pretty stinkin' good at this! I don't currently have the time or inclination to mess with this right now, but here's a quick tip that may or may not come in handy for this type of thing. The arched "lid" is really the most difficult part IMO. You can potentially simplify things for yourself by turning that into a completely vertical surface. Consider converting the archway or even the entire plan into a symbol. Then you can flip the whole thing onto its side, draw your moldings, convert those molding to a symbol, and then drop that symbol back into your plan. Just a thought.

Here's a quick video. Hopefully this answers your questions... https://youtu.be/iFlzxT-gOPw NOTE: I typically like to try to find the most efficient way to do something before making a video but I didn't spend much time on this one. I was just trying to get it done so I could get out the door. I'm thinking I probably didn't need to place the breaks underneath that arch quite so accurately and that there is probably a snap setting I could have toggled off to get those breaks to snap to the temporary points a lot easier. Anyway, it could definitely be improved upon. Hopefully it will at least give you the general idea though.

Here's a couple more quick tips guys... -Forget about the attic wall. Its not necessary unless you want it for some reason. Set your wall to balloon through ceiling above. -Also, you can use the roof to get your arch and then all you have to do is make one minor change to the top profile of your wall in a 3D view and the roof can be deleted. You could then revert whatever that minor change was. The roof will essentially do automatically what I had suggested doing above using an arc converted to a polyline.

To add one more thing to what BT said, there is one other setting that can come in quite handy and that is this... With proximity field checked, your dimension will be placed exactly the specified distance away from the object you are dimensioning. So, if you have your reach set to 36" and your proximity field set to 12", you can pull your dimensions 2 or 3 feet away from the wall (or other object) but your dimension line will automatically draw at the specified 12". You could also pull the dimension along the center of the wall and it will jump out to 12" as well. Anyway, I use this setting a lot to keep my work looking clean and consistent.

I'm away from my computer but it may depend on what order you draw in Johnny. It may take a little trial and error but you should be able to get it to work. A few additional tips and suggestions. -You may need to actually break the wall in plan view and you may need to create a copy of your wall type for the stepped sections. -You may need to draw the stepped sections AFTER the arched section, and again...you may want to do so with a copy of the wall type. -Maybe try using additional sections of flat roof to create the steps. -You can also create the arch by drawing an arc in elevation at the appropriate location, converting the arc to a polyline, and then breaking and reshaping the wall to match that polyline. Won't be as auto as the roof method but probably a little easier and more stable for most people. Not sure what you mean by the curved roof method requiring a cap.

Start out by reading this thread to get a rough idea of how to make the arched top... https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/7709-arched-wall/?hl=parapet#entry68376 For the rest of the wall steps, I would break and reshape in elevation. Should all be a lot easier than you might think.

,:-/ For some reason I'm having a hard time believing that : )

You have to uncheck Blend Colors With Materials (the little paint roller icon). I recommend unchecking this in your profile plan and leaving it unchecked except in very rare circumstances.

You can always send to layout and just annotate there (which is pretty much what it looks like Nick did in those particular examples). And FYI, the stuff I posted above wasn't really to directly address your question per se. It was just showing a way to specifically get decent looking dimension lines into 3D views.

Yep. Nice job Alan, that's how I would normally handle details like that as well. Having said that...Cheater cheater pumpkin eater!! Those dims are all in 2D views. I do think that's probably where they SHOULD be though. Dimensions in 3D might look cool but they can pretty easily get confusing. It's not uncommon to see dimensions in 3D where you can't quite tell what it's dimensioning.

Here's a quick example... And the plan to play with if you want to...3D Dim test.plan And the small library of symbols I used...3D dim tools.calibz The symbols should show up in your library in a folder titled 3D dim tools. Its just horizontal and vertical 3D dim lines and 3D extensions. Drop them into the plan in plan view and then rotate and resize as necessary in any view. I have the stretch planes set up so they shouldn't distort so long as you use the appropriately oriented symbol. Again, you'll have to add/modify the text manually, but you can actually select the symbol and open it to get the length if you want. Anyway, dimensioning in 3D isn't really something I've found myself needing to do, but despite its clunkiness this is probably the most elegant solution I've found in Chief. Have fun, and have a nice weekend everyone!

I'm away from my computer right now so I can't post any examples, but I think the most efffective and best looking way to do this in Chief right now is using molding polylines with very thin molding profiles. Doing it this way, the representation in 3D is correct and any changes to the camera position don't require redoing anything except the text. I should probably make a video about this at some point but it's funny, I think Chief is EXTREMELY close to having this capability already and they may not even realize it. Try this quick experiment. Draw a line in plan view, include an arrow on both ends, set the arrow to maybe 9", and check Show Line Length. Now click the Convert Polyline tool, convert it to a molding polyline, and assign a narrow molding profile. Now go into a 3D view and select that molding polyline. While the line is selected you should notice 2 things... 1. The arrows on either end of the line are displayed WHILE IN 3D. 2. As long as your minimum display size is set high enough, the line length will also display WHILE IN 3D. Besides this, we also have temporary dimensions and dimensions lines that show up in 3D (when you select a cabinet for example). Anyway, there's not much you can do with it but it goes to show Chief is pretty stinking close. In the meantime, try using molding polylines drawn in 2D views. You'll have to draw the arrows manually but once you draw a couple all you have to do is copy and paste as necessary and they look pretty shnazzy in 3D. Of course you'll have to add the text manually.

What you are seeing is what I would call orphaned symbols. I'm not sure how, but their respective cad blocks have been deleted somehow. That box with a diamond in it is what you get when an object has no cad block assigned to it. I would send that into tech-support. If you post the plan maybe one of us can take a look too.

Yep. Either Point To Point Move or one of the 2 Align/Distribute tools. If you have a line to snap to you call also use your center mouse button to grab and move the object by one of the edge or corner handles. This way you can use snap indicators to position the object where you want it.

At least 2 ways...

You already mentioned this method Scott, remember... "...Boolean operation. (Yech)..."

Glenn's video can be found in this thread (which might hold some other valuable information as well)... https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/9422-primitive-modeling/?fromsearch=1

I don't think I would use a bay window at all. Just use normal walls and modify the foundation placement as necessary.

I think what you're probably looking for is found under the roof tab for the offending wall...Lower Wall Type if Split by Butting Roof.

Yep. That's another good reason to do things that way.

Hey Johnny, I just tested out another method that looks like it might work for you. We no longer have Sketchup Pro so I couldn't actually test this with the .layout extension but I did test this using a normal .skp file... It appears as if though Sketchup will recognize and open any file extension so long as the actual file is readable, so...if you get into the habit of naming your Sketchup layout files with a different extension such as .skplayout, and then set Sketchup as the default app for the .skplayout extension, then you can use Chief as the default for the .layout extension and you will have no conflicts. Its just a matter of doing 2 things... 1. Displaying file name extensions in Windows Explorer 2. Remembering to manually change the extension when naming your Sketchup file. NOTE: You don't actually have to display file name extensions but the problem is that if you don't you won't have the option of manually modifying the extension name when saving your file in Sketchup...it would have to be done after the fact which could get rather confusing and messy. Unfortunately Chief WILL NOT allow you to save with any extensions other than .layout...although it will open the file if you use .la1 as the extension for your layout file. You would have to manually modify the extensions from Windows Explorer though. Just seems easier to make the change as I suggested in Sketchup instead. Not sure if that is any easier than just using Open With, but it gives you another option.

Ya, I think the best solution is to simply set whichever program you use most often as the default and then right click and use Open With> if you decided to use the other program.

Unfortunately, I think the only way you'll be able to get this to happen would be if you know someone with a copy of Revit who would be willing to download the files and then export as a 3D DWG, DXF, or some other file type that Chief can import. Have you checked the Sketchup Warehouse or the bonus catalogs?

You have to either check "Include Type" in the label tab of the schedule dbx or add the "Hinge Side" column to keep differing swings from grouping together.

This particular statement isn't totally true. As a simple example, you could add a $toggle macro to a plain polyline label that recognizes the line weight and place that object on a special "Toggle" layer. You can adjust that line weight differently in any given layer set. The resulting value can tell your label how to behave in that particular layer set. In other words, changing the line weight for your Toggle layer will change your labels for other objects with the main label macro.